Evaluation of Meteodrones for Precise Vertical Profiling of the Lower Atmosphere

Meteomatics' hexacopters are capable of measuring temperature, humidity, pressure and wind components up to an altitude of 6 kilometers. Besides being substantially more sustainable and cost-effective than radiosondes, Meteodrones have the significant advantage of measuring these atmospheric parameters in a vertical profile instead of being deflected from their launching position by wind.

For continual verification and improvement of data quality, the measurements are compared to co-located measurements like radiosondes, lidars and measurement masts and evaluated against the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) observation requirements for high-resolution numerical weather prediction, among other criteria.

In this presentation, we share the latest comparison results from flight campaigns conducted throughout 2024, including the WMO UAS demonstration campaign. Therefore, we show the capability of Meteodrones to close the meteorological data gap in the lower atmosphere and to considerably improve numerical weather forecasts.